Thomas Day 2

Frank writes…

What can I say about Day Out With Thomas that has not already been said? The weather Sunday was warm and sunny, and the event seemed to go off without a hitch.

I signed up to run the 3142; here's our trusty 169-series car ready to leave the yard. But oops - I forgot to bring my run number tag. Fortunately, Zach, who was running the 144, came to the rescue.

The run number tag he procured for me had a familiar name scrawled on the back!

Here's a sharp-looking lineup, and in chronological order, no less. Zach and Randy were on the 144, while Jeff O. and Joseph were on the 4391. Jeff F. was my lunch relief, much appreciated as always. We also had a visit from Jeremy, an old Seashore volunteer now living in California.

After the service cars were back in the barn at the end of the afternoon, the guys did some switching to reload the 'Liner into Barn 7. Here's a sight to warm the heart of any Highwood aficionado.

The 354 was taken on a test trip around the streetcar loop and passed with flying colors, from what I'm told. I don't think I'd mentioned this, but the 354 started experiencing the same "frog striking" problem at South Junction that the 18 did, and at about the same time. Fortunately, the track repair that was put into effect a few weeks ago seems to have done the trick for this car, as well. Depending on volunteer time and inspection schedules, the 354 may again be making occasional appearances in service.

Thomas Day 1

The first day of Thomas was busy as usual.  I didn't get a chance to take many pictures during the day, but in the morning here he is ready to start pulling the train.  I note that he seems to have a new paint scheme.

I was the conductor on the 4391.  While waiting to go into service, I noticed this historic flag in Barn 7.  The Museum has been putting up various patriotic displays in honor of the 250th anniversary of our nation.  And I must admit I wasn't familiar with this particular flag, although I remember reading about John Paul Jones as a youngster.  

You can learn something new every day at IRM.

And here's the required crew picture: Jeff Obarek and me.  Operations went smoothly all day.

And among other things, the Electroliner made a stunning display on the ladder track.  

The main reason seems to have been so that new ballast could be dumped on track 71.

Property improvement never stops.

And of course, Thomas tickets are still on sale!

Thomas in the Rain

The second Saturday of Thomas featured rain during much of the day, but we are able to deal with it and make the event a success nonetheless.  I was on streetcar relief and was able to take several pictures before the rain started.

The Thomas train consists of six Rock Island cars and one Lackawanna Boonton car.  So this requires a large number of friendly volunteers to keep everyone happy.

At the other end of the train is the snazzy North Western Geep.

Streetcar service is generally provided by our CSL fleet.  Since rain was expected, the 4391 stayed in the barn and the other three handled the crowds.

Dan Buck was the dispatcher.

Down by the station, we see the Percy train coming in off the main.

Ironically enough, we have Thomas running Percy:

And Larry Stone flies in from Nevada to take part!

In the middle of the day, lightning was detected in the area, so the streetcars all pulled their poles and waited out the storm.  The Thomas and Percy trains continued to run.

And as always, there are lots of other activities going on.

And so, thanks to the confident wisdom of everyone, we are able to keep DOWT going as a big part of  our operating season every year.

More Thomas

Another day of Thomas went well.  A lot of people put in a lot of effort to make these four busy days a success, and I certainly can't begin to list them all.  A great deal of thanks is due to everyone who helped; most of them spent a lot more time on Thomas than I did.  One sad note: our old friend Larry Stone was planning to fly in from Nevada for a second weekend, but his flight yesterday was cancelled due to the airline computer snafu, so he had to stay home.

Just a few more pictures:

Meanwhile, deep in the mysterious caverns of Barn 4, a few of the regulars continued on their chosen projects, trying to avoid being dragooned into picking up trash or something.  Here Tim was getting ready to apply numbers to the 1808.

Bill was cleaning the group covers.

And Ed was working on parts for the Cleveland PCC.

Last names have been omitted to protect the guilty.

A Sunday on Sodor Tramways

Frank writes...

I spent the first Sunday of 2024's Day Out With Thomas event on the streetcar line. I started the day running the 3142; due to volunteer shortages we began with just two cars out, but additional volunteers arrived around lunchtime and that allowed us to reallocate resources. I moved to the 144, which I ran for the rest of the afternoon, and the 144 crew took out the 4391. It's always nice to see this many Chicago cars out.

Above, here's the 144 on its way back into Barn 7 late in the afternoon.

And here's your requisite crowd shot. Overall, the event seemed like it ran very smoothly on Sunday.

While I was grabbing lunch over by the future site of the gas station, I happened upon our new Visitor Center display board. Pretty nice, eh? You can learn more at www.irm.org/visitorcenter.

After operations wound down, Zach brought out a sign that was just discovered among some miscellaneous items. It's a wooden sign proclaiming "Green Road," which of course is the terminus of the Shaker Boulevard line on Shaker Heights Rapid Transit. Lo and behold, it fits perfectly in that mysterious little sign bracket between the doors of the 18. Eureka! The question now is, what role exactly did this sign fulfill? Zach speculated that when these cars ran as a five-car set, the platforms may have been too short to accommodate the entire train, so riders may have chosen which car to board based on their destination - indicated by these little signs. Or maybe it was something else. Anyone know?

After that, Zach and I loaded up the newly reupholstered seats for the CA&E curve-siders and used the new Taylor-Dunn "golf cart pickup truck" to move them to temporary storage in the 451. Above, Zach has the first load leaving the car shop.

Door-to-door, "last mile" service! Here the Taylor-Dunn takes the second load down the aisle in Barn 8. Thanks also to Greg and Bob for helping load these into the 451. As soon as time permits, I'm hoping to start installing these in the 460.

So, what else was going on? Joel was working on some maintenance items on North Shore 749 during the day. Above, one end of the car has been jacked up a little bit, just enough for the center bearing to clear the truck. The purpose was to put grease "cookies" into the center bearing to keep it lubricated.

Over in Barn 7, I saw that when Steve was out a couple of weeks ago, he got three new center doors installed on Kansas City PCC 755. This is really coming along! Three of the center doors and two of the front doors have now had their Philadelphia plywood doors replaced by correct steel doors that match the profile of the car side.

And out behind Barn 4, a number of pallet rack stringers were laid out on the tracks. At some point these will be painted, and then we'll start assembling pallet racking in the new Barn 4 extension so that we can store large items like motors, air compressors, etc., inside.

Thomas with Pictures

(Technical issues have been resolved, so here we go!)

Saturday was the first day of Thomas for this year, and everything seemed to go very well.  Ticket sales have been very good, so the first trip of the day was moved up to 9:30.  Operations went smoothly, due to the expertise and experience of our Operating Dept. members.  It's always nice to see the campus crowded with people.  And Barn 3 was open so visitors had some cars to go through.

Percy

Percy's helper!

Thomas

By the way, here's a stack of reupholstered seats for the CA&E St. Louis cars.  Jon Fenlaciki has been doing yeoman work transferring these to and from the upholstery shop:

Since I was on Streetcar Relief, I had some free time.  And I visited the C&NW Historical Society building for the first time.  

Inside the visitor's center

Just a tiny fraction of the documentation they possess

Ticket window from the old North Western terminal in Chicago

  The people there were very helpful and friendly, and I got a tour of the back rooms.  There are some nice displays of various sorts in the front, but behind that are the archives, with an astounding amount of historical documents, much of it going back to the 19th century.  There are photographs, detailed maps of every town the C&NW went through, accounting ledgers, and more.  In some cases they documented every tie that got replaced.  The volunteers are in the process of cataloging and organizing all this material.

Anyway, it's an interesting place to visit.  Right now, it's on the west edge of town, so they don't get as many visitors as they ought to.  But urban development is headed that way!